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Winfield, Oyama, Okanagan Centre and Carrs Landing since 1951
Fu s i o n S t u d i o @ s h a w. c a
March 14, 2012
▼ RESCUE
Inside
Hard lesson Three Lake Country youngsters learned the hard way that ‘testing’ lake surface ice is a bad idea. ...............................
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BOBBI-SUE MENARD
Lodge Road Lake Country’s budget increase of 2.5 per cent allows for sidewalks to be built along Lodge Road. ...............................
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Musically minds Students from Music for Young Children wait their turn to go to the piano and perform their own compositions. ...........................
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Flyers ■ Rona ■ JYSK Linen ‘N Furniture ■ Staples ■ Home Depot
Fire fighters ready to jump into service at any moment One of the best deals in Lake Country is a service that residents hope they’ll never need. The Lake Country Fire Department presented its annual report at the Central Okanagan Regional District board meeting on March 6 and Fire Chief Steven Windsor delivered some excellent results. The LCFD is a paid on-call volunteer fire force and the district has been well served by the men and women who make up the department. There has been an average increase in emergency call volume to the LCFD over the past five years. There were 50 more calls in 2011 than 2010. That total number includes structure fires (21 over the year), vehicle fires, wild fires (35 last year), motor vehicle accidents and 485 medical calls. The average response time was 10 minutes and 15 seconds. The last stat is where the worth of the LCFD
DOUG FARROW/CONTRIBUTOR
LAKE COUNTRY FIRE DEPARTMENT Assistant Chief Aaron Weller (left, in the cab), chief Steve Windsor and Assistant Chief Brent Penner. is demonstrated. As a paid on-call fire department, members must come from their home to the fire station before heading out to an emergency call. Members of the department almost all have full-time jobs, some of which are shift work, allowing the department the flexibility to have full coverage. “At any given time we have a good team to respond to an incident,” said Assistant Fire Chief Brent Penner. The department’s budget is $200,000 per year, a tiny fraction of the cost compared to career firefighting staffing. The basic wage rate is $15 per hour, in line with other departments across the valley. An on-call volunteer firefighter can be compensated as little as $30 for showing up to the scene of a motor
vehicle accident or structure fire.
“We try to deliver professional services
DOUG FARROW/CONTRIBUTOR
PETER WHITFIELD is the training captain for the Lake Country Fire Department.
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with the resources we are given and we continue to be successful,” said Fire Chief Steve Windsor. Part of that professional service delivery is an extensive training program. Total practice hours in 2011 were 6,249. There is an imperative to keep training, skills and certification current at all times. “The training never ends,” said Penner. Firefighters have also beefed up the lake ice incident training considerably. In the past, response times from the appropriate crews in Kelowna could be well over 20 minutes. In a recent emergency, the LCFD reached an ice incident at Wood Lake in close to 10 minutes. “The level of skill needed today is a lot higher than in years past when you basically learn-
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ed on the job,” explained Windsor. “We do have a good budget for training.” The department is now looking for more volunteers. The quality of current volunteers is strong, but overall numbers are slightly down in Oyama. The department looks to have up to 65 volunteer members at any one time. In the past, the LCFD has taken volunteers as young as teens up to people well in their middle age so long as they had the right fitness and attitude. LCFD is looking to resize its fleet of vehicles slightly and put a pair of new 4x4 trucks with the ability to access interface fires and steep slopes out to a request for proposal. Should the proposals come in on budget, older trucks with less situational flexibility will be retired, dropping some maintenance costs. In the next few years a new hall will have to be seriously looked at, Windsor said. Engineering and architectural firms have come back with the verdict that the current 45- to 50-yearold hall is past the point of renovation. Built in four sections, the current hall is missing proper showers for decontamination, and enough room for gear and equipment. The land for the new hall has been procured just a few blocks north of the current location. The department and its volunteers can often be found at non-emergencies, volunteering time at Lake Country elementary schools and participating in community events and fund raisers.
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